Great chef, shame about his new vehicle

The prefix “extra” means beyond, or outside. As in extracurricular (beyond the curriculum), extraterrestrial (outside the earth) or extravaganza (beyond the, er, vaganza). By definition, life cannot be extraordinary: most of it must be usual, normal. Humdrum. Restaurants fit this: the majority are serviceable, decent, places that pass the time but do not blow the mind. London is full of them. And full of good, hardworking chefs, but not extraordinary ones.

- DAVID ELLIS RESTAURANT CRITIC

Luke Ahearne is not one of the good, hardworking clan. The ex-Lita chef is a maniacally obsessive sort, dedicated as hell, creatively curious. Extraordinary in both the sense of beyond and outside. Lita, a beautiful place for people with beautiful incomes, was very much about him. “I’ve trained the kitchen to have my palate,” he once told me there. “So if I’m off, nothing changes.”

Many run their kitchens relying on the senses of others. What you suspect Ahearne really wants is for human cloning to hurry up and be approved so he can staff a brigade using replicas of himself. This is not a criticism: he’s one of the finest of fine-dining chefs working in London, up there with Spencer Metzger and Chet Sharma.

Now he is at Motorino. Curious name, that, for an Ahearne project. Small motor it means, or moped as the Italians have it. Ahearne has energy like someone bolted a turbo to his heart and pours liquid nitrous oxide into his coffee. No matter. It is the second 2025 opening from chef Stevie Parle and Jonathan Downey, following Town, a lava lamp beauty of 1960s colours and curves.